There was even an option to romance certain characters—or multiple at once, if that was your thing.
I ignored that nonsense completely. I wasn’t here for digital porn with pixel waifus. Besides, if I wanted that kind of stimulation, I had the real world. Or at least, better distractions.
The story itself? Bearable. Nothing revolutionary, but not a complete dumpster fire either.
You played as a slum-born boy who stumbled across a cursed artifact during a particularly brutal winter. It was a sword—ancient, worn, and soaked in malevolence. They called it Living Memory. Pretty edgy. I liked it.
The blade whispered things. Memories of its past wielders leaked into the boy’s mind, pushing him to awaken.
With it, he gained strength—enough to crawl out of the mud and into the wider world. That classic "rags to reluctantly badass" arc.
From there, it was a journey through kingdoms and crumbling lands. The boy gathered allies in strange ways.
Some joined because of charisma. Others fell for his lies. A few were manipulated, and the rest? Beaten into submission. My kind of party-building.
Eventually, the ragtag group, now known as the cohort, began moving across regions, challenging lords of the realms.
With each victory, they stole fragments of the defeated’s power. Bit by bit, they grew stronger—both in skill and in presence. They stopped being nobodies.
Naturally, the closer they grew, the more tangled their relationships became. Romance bloomed within the group.
Tension, jealousy, affection—it all unfolded as they ventured deeper into chaos. There were options to dive into those relationships too.
I didn’t. I kept my character focused, distant. A lone wolf among wolves. And because of that, I was labelled "maidenless."
To the point where some dumbass NPC brought it up mid-conversation, laughing with a group of others about how I couldn’t get anyone. So, I did the rational thing.
I murdered him on the spot.
And you know what? No one even reacted. Either the devs were lazy, or they secretly agreed with me.
But then... there was her.
The most unusual character I came across.
Purple hair. Crimson eyes. Silent. Subtle.
She never showed up like the others. She was there on the edge of the screen, watching me from a rooftop. Sometimes in the shadows of a ruined hall. Always quiet. Never speaking.
She’d appear randomly—during boss fights, in towns, even mid-cutscenes. She’d interrupt quests, sometimes helping, sometimes sabotaging. No pattern. Just chaos.
They clearly tried to code her as creepy, but honestly? It didn’t work. She was cute. Her tiny smirk, the way her head tilted when things got messy—I found myself waiting for her appearances. Looking forward to them.
There was something... magnetic about her.
She wasn’t romanceable. At least, not that I saw. She didn’t even have a name in the character log. Just "Unknown Entity." That added to the charm.
Eventually, the game ended. No big cinematic. No achievement pop-ups. like I got from that arcade run before.
Maybe because I wasn’t in an official game pod. Maybe the game just wasn’t popular enough to have reward data embedded.
Either way, I didn’t care.
I stretched out on the couch, arms above my head, the weight of the last few hours loosening off my shoulders. The leather of the sofa squeaked beneath me as I leaned back.
And that’s when I saw her.
Standing just behind the couch, arms crossed, hair damp. A thin towel was lazily wrapped around her neck.
Her tanned skin shimmered under the soft light, beads of water tracing down her collarbone. The scent of shampoo and warm soap lingered faintly in the air.
She wasn’t staring at me, though. Her eyes were glued to the monitor, focused entirely on the game I’d just finished.
I snapped my fingers. "Hello? You alive? Or do I need to punch you in the face to check?"
Her head tilted slowly down to meet my gaze. Her eyes narrowed, like she was seriously questioning if I’d follow through.
Judging by her face... she’d concluded I would.
She scoffed, turning her head. "You’d actually do that... domestic abuser."
"Hey," I retorted instantly. "We’re not even married."
She rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. "I’m going to sleep. You go enjoy your all-nighter, gamer boy."
I raised my hand in lazy farewell. "Sure will."
She didn’t bother with another word. Just turned, pulled the sheets back, and slipped under them with practiced ease. A few seconds later, she was already out, her breathing slow and rhythmic.
Meanwhile, I turned back toward the console and opened the home screen again.
This time, I wasn’t looking for games.
Apparently, this system had its own network—something like the internet, though filtered and regulated by regional mana grids.
That meant limited access unless you were cleared, but I’d already linked my ID.
My card was still inserted.
Which meant I was definitely being monitored. Logged-in activity, usage pattern, behavioral imprinting—it was all being recorded somewhere.
Probably stored in a neat little folder tagged with my name and status. If I suddenly started typing "Astreel Family secrets" into the search bar, I’d have a couple of agents knocking on the door before Kaelira could even finish snoring.
So, no. I needed an alibi.
And really, there was no better cover than searching brainrot.
If the internet existed in a world—any world—then brainrot was inevitable. It was a universal law, right up there with gravity and people pretending pineapple didn’t belong on pizza.
It was one of my sincerest beliefs. If there was a Net, there was nonsense.
So I leaned back and began scrolling casually, letting the algorithm do its thing.
Just as I expected, the top trending video?
A girl dancing. To a song that sounded like someone was trying to summon the devil through autotune.
She was flailing her arms around, mana twinkling in a glittery haze around her, while some sound-reactive runes pulsed beneath her feet like a magic-powered dance floor. It was supposed to look stylish.
It didn’t. It looked like someone shoved neon into a blender and called it art.
And it didn’t stop there.
Every video in the trending section was peak degeneration. People doing magic tricks while in bikinis.
Some half-naked guy flexing his wind manipulation skills while playing some battle rhythm game. A duo playing strip-mana-chess. Don’t even ask.
Mana-powered stupidity.
"What the hell is wrong with this place?" I muttered under my breath.
For a second, I considered the possibility. ’Maybe... porn did exist here.’
Then I shook my head.
Nope. Not tonight. I didn’t need that kind of distraction.
And with Kaelira just a few feet away—definitely still awake and probably pretending to sleep—I’d never hear the end of it if she caught me mid-NSFW click.
Her verbal slander would be relentless, and I valued my sanity, if not my dignity.
So I closed the trending tab and switched lanes.
Something quieter. Safer. Forums, maybe. Blogs, if they weren’t dead yet.
Took some digging, but eventually, I found a thread hub—halfway between Reddit and an ancient message board.
A mix of flashy headlines and cheap clickbait thumbnails. Most of it was gaming-related, which suited me just fine.
I skimmed the top posts:
♦ LORD VAYLIN STRIKES AGAIN!!!
The legend himself—Lord Vaylin—has entered the 345th Battle Royale Tournament preview matches and wiped the floor with the competition.
Straight annihilation. No survivors. The man didn’t even break a sweat.
Is he even human? Debate below.
♦ ASTREEL LORDS MAKE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
User: NewsOrbOfficial
In a surprising twist for this year’s Battle Royale Tournament, the Astreel Lords have announced a jaw-dropping grand prize: 1,000,000 RHB.
That’s right. One million.
On top of that? Bonus credits per confirmed kill. This is going to be the bloodiest tournament yet.
And I’m so here for it.
♦ OMEGA-SENSE ARENADECK XZ-9000: FAILURE OR FUTURE?
The newly released ArenaDeck model has split the community.
Some say it’s cheap for a reason—buggy, laggy, poor optimization.
Others defend it as affordable and accessible.
Cheap AND bad. Great for broke students, terrible for anyone expecting quality.
♦ GLITCH?? HAUNTED CODE??
Across multiple games, users have reported encountering a strange character that doesn’t follow normal game mechanics.
The entity doesn’t register as a party member or NPC.
Appears mid-quest, often unprompted.
Some users report getting a text bubble:
"Help me!! I’m alive. Please get me out."
The devs are radio silent.
Forums are exploding.
Some think it’s a hidden event. Others think it’s a haunted AI.
Either way, it’s creepy as hell.
I leaned back, fingers steepled.
A prize pool like that? The Astreel Lords weren’t playing small. That kind of money could fund me for a lifetime—or make someone very dangerous, very fast.
But that last thread... the glitch one. That caught my eye.
’Looks like I need to join the battle royale.’ I wanted to see Vaylin rage again. And see what he would do to a guy this time.